Sharon Moody was born in 1951 in Miami, Florida and grew up in North Carolina, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from Appalachian State University in printmaking and drawing. After college she moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked as a graphic artist while producing a series of realist drawings that were exhibited at the Washington Women’s Art Center. After relocating to New Jersey, she continued working as a publication designer and also began her first series of photorealist paintings of suburban landscapes, winning a Fellowship in Painting from the New Jersey Council on the Arts in 1981.

After returning with her family to the Washington, D.C. area, she earned an M.F.A. in painting at the George Washington University and was appointed the Morris Louis Fellow. She copied masterworks at the National Gallery of Art as part of her technical training. Moody has combined her studio practice with teaching for decades at several schools in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., including George Washington University and Georgetown University. Through the 1990’s and 2000’s her work focused on still life painting as she created several series of works. Since that time her work has been exclusively trompe l’oeil compositions which have been exhibited nationally and internationally.